NoTubes Grail and Hugo 52 – first look

New road tubeless and ‘plus’ rims and wheelsets

Published: June 18, 2014 at 5:00 pm

Rim and wheel manufacturer Stan’s NoTubes has developed two new rims aimed at burgeoning segments of the cycling market: disc road bikes and the much smaller, but still growing, world of “plus-sized” mountain bikes.

Grail

The Grail is the company’s latest tubeless road rim. NoTubes developed the Grail in conjunction with GT Bicycles, who approached the company about designing a wider, disc-specific rim to accompany the recently released Grade road bike.

The notubes grail is at home on the road as it is on a cyclocross course :

Josh Patterson / Future Publishing

Unlike the Ironcross rim, which is not intended for the higher pressures of road tubeless tyres, the Grail is suitable for both road and cyclocross use. NoTubes claims the Grail is the company’s most aerodynamic rim profile to date.

NoTubes claims the grail is the company’s most aerodynamic rim profile to date:

Courtesy

The grail rim will be available in the coming weeks, with complete wheelsets available this fall:

Courtesy

The Grail rim will be available in the coming weeks, with complete wheelsets available this fall.

Hugo 52

The Hugo 52 is NoTubes’ first foray into the world of plus-sized rims. As the name implies, the new rim has an external width of 52mm and an internal width of 50mm. It’s not quite a fat bike rim, as it’s intended to be paired with the small but growing number of 3in-wide 29 and 27.5in tyres. (The minimum recommended tyre width for this new rim is 2.5in.)

The hugo 52 marks notubes entry into the work of semi-fat bikes:

Josh Patterson / Future Publishing

The Hugo 52 uses a central box section, with single walls at the bead seats. According to NoTubes, this single / double-wall hybrid design bolsters stiffness, while weighing significantly less than a full double-walled design. It is also said to aid in tyre inflation by spreading the beads apart.

While the number of semi-fat tyres and frames is currently limited to custom creations and a handful of production models, such as the Surly Krampus and the soon to be released Niner RDO Plus, there appears to be growing interest among larger manufacturers. According to NoTubes, the Hugo 52 will be come stock on several new 29+ and 27.5+ bikes in 2015, though the company wouldn’t name specific brands. NoTubes did confirm that the Hugo 52’s rim profile was scalable, meaning it is quite possible we’ll see wider versions of this rim in the future.

The hugo is designed for 3in-wide tires :

Courtesy

The hugo 52 will be available this fall:

Courtesy

The Hugo 52 will be available this fall.

Josh Patterson

Contributor

Josh Patterson is a BikeRadar contributor and former technical editor. He has spent most of his career working in the cycling industry as an athlete, mechanic and journalist. He holds a master's degree in journalism and has more than 20 years of experience as a cyclist and 12 years of experience riding and writing for BikeRadar, Cyclingnews, Cycling Weekly, Dirt Rag, RoadBikeReview and Outside Magazine. A native of the Flint Hills of Kansas, Josh was a pioneer in the gravel cycling movement, having raced the first Unbound 200 and many other gravel events around the globe. He considers himself a cycling generalist and enjoys road, gravel and mountain biking in equal measure. When not traveling for work, he can be found exploring the singletrack and lonely gravel roads that surround his home in Fort Collins, Colorado. In addition to his love of cycling, Josh is an enthusiastic supporter of brunch, voting rights and the right to repair movement.